SUNLINE - memorial unveiled at Auckland Cup carnival 2012

In Memory of a Champion - Unveilling of Sunline Memorial at Auckland Cup Week 2012

Auckland Racing Club and the connections of champion New Zealand racehorse, Sunline, have announced the unveilling of a memorial for hall of fame inductee Sunline is set to take place at Ellerslie during Auckland Cup Week 2012, on Stella Artois Auckland Cup Day (Wednesday 7 March).

An inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame, Sunline passed away in 2009 after a long-standing battle with laminitis.

Prior to the running of the Listed Nissan Sunline Vase (at approximately 3.55pm), a statue in commemoration of Sunline will be unveiled beside her grave just outside the entrance to the stables at Ellerslie Racecourse.

The world's highest earning racemare of her time, Sunline (Desert Sun ex Songline) raced on 48 occasions for 32 wins (including 13 Group I races), 9 seconds and 3 thirds to earn over NZ$14.5 million.Sunline was named New Zealand Horse of the Year on four occasions and is also the only horse ever to win the Australian Horse of the Year championship three times.

A project under the direction of Fiona McKee, this bronze statue of Sunline has been two years in the making and anyone with an interest in racing or sporting legends is encouraged to be present at this special occasion (a general admission ticket will give you access). General admission tickets on Stella Artois Auckland Cup Day are $20pp (children under 15 free) and can be purchased online from http://ticketstore.ellerslie.co.nz/...Cup-Day-C6.aspx

This year's honorary inductee Bart Commings will be joined this year by 10 further inductees to the NZ Racing Hall Of Fame when the gala dinner is held at the Ellerslie racecourse on Friday, March 2, the eve of the start of the Auckland Cup Carnival.

“The new inductees range from people or horses from the bottom of the South Island to the top of the North Island and it is a good cross section of inductees who deserve to be recognised for the achievements to New Zealand racing,” said Gerald Fell, Chairman of the NZRHOF.